The Country of the Blind by H.G. Wells - Book Report/Review Example

The Country of the Blind by H.G. Wells The Country of the Blind by H.G. Wells is a ic short story that reveals the underlying necessity in human nature to have a faith in myths. Wells turns the concept of advantage and disadvantage upside down when the reader, as well as his protagonist Nunez, are forced to doubt the ability to see as a guaranteed tool for domination in the land of the blind. In addition the story can be connected to multiple ideologies commenting on Freud’s views on religious faith to the morals taught in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Nunez as a character is very witty. He doesn’t have the handicap most literary characters have of catching onto something long after the reader has already figured it out. He is educated and ambitious, and entirely motivated to succeed, but this also leaves him vulnerable to failure. The love he shares with Medina-sarote is as stable as his existence I the world of the blind. She is very sweet and kind and while she enjoys Nunez’s tales of sight, she doesn’t believe him anymore than the rest of the village. The concept of a land of blind citizens is one that can be taken into multiple contexts. Every story from Plato’s the Allegory of the Cave to The Matrix has a metaphor of blindness verse truth. Well’s tale can just as easily be connected to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave as it is to Freud’s theory. The Allegory of the Cave is a metaphor in Platos Republic.  The story basically asks the reader to imagine a prisoner whose been confined since birth deep within a cave.  Their arms and head are confined so that they may only perceive one direction, staring directly at a wall.  Behind the prisoner is a fire and a pathway.  Along this pathway the prisoners captures walk and carry animals and cast shadows.  When the captures talk their words echo off the walls of the cave and the prisoners believe them to be coming from the shadows.  Plato presents all of the possibilities that fall within this situation.  He points out that if one prisoner were to escape their eyesight would be sensitive to the sun when they leave and if they were to return.  Platos purpose of telling this story is to show the human nature thats inherent in being naïve to reality.  It is often connected to the theory of George Berkeley, more simply put, that we dont truly know any object we see beyond our mental reaction. strange disease had come upon them and had made all the children born to them there—and, indeed, several older children also--blind. It was to seek some charm or antidote against this plague of blindness that he had with fatigue and danger and difficulty returned down the gorge. (Wells 1904, 1) There are many ways Well’s story can be taken, because the plot is presented in such an open ended fashion. One critique common among literary scholars is that Nunez falls in the beginning of the story and then the rest of his adventure is really just a figment of his imagination, as Foster notes, “ It is possible that the valley of the blind does not tangibly exist, and that it is merely a figment of the delirious Nunezs imagination--a delirium brought on by a concussion from a thousand-foot fall (2009, 129).” He goes on to identify this as the reason due to say, “The original Parascotopetl explorers with whom Nunez has been hiking do not even attempt to retrieve the mountaineers body, automatically assuming that he is dead. As Nunez lies "stunned and insensible," he attempts to dislodge himself from the snow "until he saw the stars" (129).” The idea that he was trapped in the snow and fighting to get free until seeing the stars implies that he might have gone unconscious. Foster identifies the repition of the statement as the key trigger to this conclusion when he says, “The repetition of this phrase in the ending--Nunezs final resting place is under the "cold clear stars"--suggests that perhaps Wells story takes place wholly in the imagination of the main character (Foster 2009, 129).” The statement “In the Country of the Blind the One-Eyed Man is King” is turned on its head in this book, and the protagonist comes to grips with the fact that in a real life circumstance this statement holds no weight. The ultimate irony Wells is capable of getting across to the reader comes in that in addition to the expectation of being treated like a king in the country of the blind Nunez isn’t even treated like and equal citizen. Nunez attempts to teach the blind villagers about the concepts of sight, but his lessons are lost on them and they are unable to comprehend the true value of this fantasy fifth sense. At one point he is even condemned for mentioning his sight. Another major theme of the story can be recognized in the cult –like naivety shared by the villagers the fact that they would rather live their lives blind than have the chance to escape their world and see, combined with the fact that they insist on taking away Nunez’s sight in order for him to be accepted into their society are all examples of their delusional faith. Freud refers to this in many of his writings when he talks about the delusions that can occur with blind cult like faith in religion. Freud identifies the massive hold which religious factions have on their followers.  He credits their cult-like draw to the long history they establish, which he recognizes can only be respected, but at the same time should be taken only so seriously. He points how naïve one must be to maintain devout belief in a religious faction when he says, "the greater the number of men to whom the treasures of knowledge become accessible, the more widespread is the falling-away from religious belief—at first only from its obsolete and objection-able trappings, but later from its fundamental postulates as well (Freud, p49)." All of the villagers believe so devoutly in their way of life that they are willing to disfigure Nunez to maintain the sanctity of their world. In his article The Myth of the New Found Land in H.G. Wells’s “The Country of the Blind,’ Alex Boulton talks about the concept of colonial power and how it is displayed in the story. He notes that when Nunez initially meets the blind villagers, he looks down on them and deems himself superior. When assessing the relationship between colonial power and the act of domination of one group over a lesser group he notes that, “Therefore there exists in the cultural philosophy of the colonial power a series of justifications of what domination is, what it represents and how the invaders should view their activities (Boulton 1995, p10).” He goes on to say, “These concepts can be distilled down to four main ideas: the indigenous population is in some way a cuckoo/non-indigenous culture; the European power of language compels the invader to rule; racial and Darwinist science disqualifies the native from any right to rule; and the biblical and commercial pull of new territory to cultivate demands colonial intervention (Boulton 1995, p10).” The irony that Nunez comes to grips with in dealing with this concept of colonial power is that he has already had it indoctrinated into his understanding and ideology. He enters the village with the quote in mind “in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king.” He is already thinking along the lines of colonization and domination. When he first sees the villagers, even before knowing of their physical disposition, he says, “But they did not appear to see him for all his gestures, and after a time, directing themselves towards the mountains far away to the right, they shouted as if in answer. Nunez bawled again, and then once more, and as he gestured ineffectually the word “blind” came up to the top of his thoughts. “The fools must be blind,” he said. He views their behavior on the mountain as inferior and questionable, and likewise he would later find they seem him the same way. What he does not realize is that what he deems to be an advantage the culture that he is self imposing himself on views his fifth sense as a disadvantage or handicap. Both parties view the other as inferior, and thus the struggle for domination over the other is played out during Nunez’s stay in the village. In his article, The Literary Adaptation John Ellis defines adaptation as “a process of reducing a pre-existent piece of writing to a series of functions: characters, locations, costumes, actions and strings of narrative events (1982 p1).” He basically identifies it as the cutting down of a piece of writing to its core elements, from which multiple narratives can be produced. He goes on to note that this is a necessary practice because, “The form of the narrative novel resists re-reading in our culture: the vast majority of novels are designed to be read once and once only, just as the narrative film is intelligible at one viewing. Re-reading or re-viewing the same text always threatens to disappoint: the process of production of the illusion becomes too obvious, the memory interferes (Ellis 1982 p2).” Adaptation into another medium becomes a means of prolonging the pleasure of the original representation, and repeating the production of a memory. Adaptations of The Country of the Blind have been made and they can be seen with films like the Matrix, Alice in Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz, Gulliver’s Travels etc…Stories where people find themselves questioning reality or in long lost new lands. In part, this is what makes the novel classic. This is why the story can be taken out of context, literally, from an abstract perspective, however necessary to get the moral across. The unchanging factor that never dies is the concept of power and domination turned on its head, the fact that one’s useful resource in one society could just as easily be seen as a disadvantage in another. This is why the story can be read and then readapted without any regard for the literal context of the reading. In sum, The Country of the Blind by H.G. Wells is a classic short story that can be put into multiple contexts. The metaphor of the blind leading the blind is put into literal context and the reality is the society based on this concept is much more capable of functioning than the metaphor might want to imply. The protagonist Nunez learns along with the reader that what we deem to be our strengths in a much less world could very well be used against us and recognized as a weakness. Nunez was unable to function in the society of the blind, and even when forced to decide between love and his own sight was unable to live a lie to live in love. Wells evoked a timeless message through this tale and that is why the story has survived over a century in publication. Work Cited Boulton, Alex. "The Myth of the New Found Land in H. G. Wellss The Country of the Blind.." The Wellsian. 18 (Winter 1995): 5-18. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Joseph Palmisano. Vol. 70. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 5-18. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Florida State University. 1 Dec. 2009 . Ellis, John. “The Literary Adaptation: An Introduction by John Ellis” Screen Reader 2 Cinema and Semiotics. Forster, EM,2009. Cult – Cultural Studies and literature> Retrieved from> http://zenfloyd.blogspot.com/2009/08/country-of-blind-by-wells-author-of.html Searles, A. Langley. "Concerning The Country of the Blind.." The Wellsian. 14 (Summer 1991): 29-33. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Joseph Palmisano. Vol. 70. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 29-33. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Florida State University. 1 Dec. 2009 . Wells, H G. 1904. The Country of the blind. retrieved from>http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a0159.pdf Read More